What an amazing photo shoot! Like many of us, Samantha had her own personal demons she had to work through before she could be in a place to take these photos. After the shoot and doing some reflection she said to us, “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.” So, while Samantha’s reasons are her own, congratulations to her for getting past them and letting me take some beautiful photos of her. Samantha took these for her husband to present a gorgeous hard cover book of them to him on their wedding day. Needless to say I wasn’t allowed to unleash these on the world until that surprise was delivered. (Which, if you’re reading this on the day it was posted, was today!)
Congratulations to Samantha on her wedding today! It is such a gorgeous day for a wedding. I had a lot of fun with this shoot. Samantha was a beautiful model and I think her husband is going to love theses photos.
Vicki Schmidtberger -May 18, 2013 - 4:44 pm
These are awesome Michael. You certainly have a great eye for composition! I had some boudoir pictures done years and years (and pounds and pounds) ago by a very talented photog, but I can tell you they weren’t anywhere near this good.
Jodi approached me about doing a Boudoir shoot as a surprise birthday gift for her husband. She was a fantastic model with confidence and charisma and her husband loved the results! Thanks again Jodi for stepping into this shoot without hesitation and I hope these photos encourage many others to do the same.
Boudoir is one of the best gifts you can give your lover…
Getting married and want to give your future husband or wife a gift they’ll never forget? Is Valentine’s Day coming up and you haven’t figure out the perfect gift yet? Purchase your lover the gift of Boudoir. We offer gift certificates that can be used to give a loved one a surprise photo shoot, or to announce your scheduled photo shoot if you just can’t wait for the book to arrive first.
They will receive professional make-up, hard cover custom photo book, a private online gallery and chocolate covered strawberries & champagne… giving them an experience they’ll never forget, and a finished product that they will cherished forever.
Or buy a Boudoir photo shoot for yourself and gift your lover the hard cover book with lay-flat pages. Upgrade to a leather-bound cover for a very timeless feel.
Request a consultation and let’s talk about your Boudoir session.
This was a home studio shoot that went really well. Emily came with several kit-n-caboodle cases full of jewelry which we had a lot of fun playing with and trying on. Yes, even me. Ok, no, not really, but I thought it sounded better to say I did. ;-) Athena had a blast sorting through all of Emily’s fantastic garage sale finds.
We ended up liking a lot of the vintage outfit shots the best, as Emily has a face and figure built for that old style look.
Thanks again Emily, for letting me post these. You are a great model and look beautiful.
Wow – these are awesome! I particularly like the ones with the veiled hat (how romantic is that!!), and the book. Fantastic use of the props and you incorporated the jewelry, hats and attire perfectly! I’ve seen a lot of boudoir shots, these are definitely some of the best I’ve seen.
First of all, this was our first boudoir shoot in a hotel room, and I’ve gotta say, I loved the experience. No last-minute cleaning of our living room, no angles I couldn’t shoot, a higher ceiling for extreme angles, a bed (!) for shooting on, and it was in general a really high quality place. I think we’ll be ditching the home studio in favor of this.
Second off.. I’m going to say nothing about this shoot, and instead allow Jill to say it for me:
I can’t say enough wonderful things about working with Michael, Athena and their makeup artist Meg Walsh. It was an incredibly positive experience. Three weeks before my shoot, I was diagnosed with a bone marrow disorder that had compromised my whole immune system. I am exhausted, sick much of the time, and unable to enjoy many activities I used to enjoy. Doing the shoot was such an amazing break from my illness; I could never thank them enough for that.
Athena ushered me into a cozy hotel suite complete with fireplace, where Michael was setting up lighting and Meg was there ready to get started on makeup. I don’t generally wear makeup, so I never would have known where to start. She even had hot rollers to give my hair a little something extra, which was totally above and beyond what I was expecting from a makeup artist, but she really made me feel like she just wanted me to look gorgeous. Even though it was a long process, Meg was so personable and was obviously doing her work with such care, I didn’t mind at all. I was delighted when she finally sent me to the mirror; I still looked like myself, but in a way I’d never seen before. Her work was truly lovely.
Earlier in the day, I had been a little nervous about the shoot, but Michael and Athena were so comfortable to be around by the time my makeup was done I was feeling at ease with the idea of getting started with the shoot. As we started posing, Michael was very attentive to my comfort; making sure every pose felt okay, that the temperature of the room was just right; those little gestures set me completely at ease. I’m terrible at smiling for the camera, but without any cheesy tricks Michael got some of my best smiles ever recorded on film.
Getting to see the photos afterward, my first thought was; “models and actresses are nothing special! Anyone can look that amazing if you have wonderful people doing your makeup, lighting you right and getting all the right angles.” I couldn’t believe how pretty I looked. After weeks of people telling me I looked sick, sitting around the house in my pajamas feeling awful, walking around the hospital in those funny robes, it was like I had been transported to another time and place in these photos. This shoot was the best thing I could have done to lift my spirits in the middle of this difficult time.
This was a wonderfully fun and easy photo shoot; Sarah is a natural model! I actually had a hard time picking what photos to use for this post because I loved all of them (which is why there are so many down there!)
This is a great example of what I consider “Hollywood Glamour” — it takes us back to a time when Hollywood presented their starlets as glamorous, beautiful woman rather than sex objects with flawless features as they often do now. Not that there is anything wrong with the modern glamor, but I feel there is something special about those shots of the past with their dramatic lighting, soft focus, and classic gowns.
Zinfandel Photography has just made the jump to the sophisticated age of accepting credit cards! I received my Square card reader today and am very excited! I can now accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American express. I can accept debit cards, credit cards and gift cards with the aforementioned companies logos.
And the best part is, I can now accept these payments from anywhere. Want to make your payment at the location of the photo shoot? No problem! Welcome to the digital age.
So, speaking of the digital age… I’m very excited for this upcoming month of photography. I’m shooting two boudoir sessions and two weddings within the next month, and have a senior portraits session, a Hollywood Glamour session and a wedding that I’ve already shot that all still need to be upload! I’ve been a little slow on getting posts up, and I apologize for that, but keep an eye out as I’ll be getting them up soon(ish)!
Have you seen this video yet? If not, watch it. I’ll wait.
Watched it? Ok, good.
I have mixed feelings on this video, and I wanted to share them here. Initially I watch this and think that it perfectly represents why our culture is so messed up when it comes to defining beauty. We see impossibly thin girls on magazine covers, women with perfect skin and no blemishes, not a wrinkle or pimple in sight, and we wish we (men included) could all look like that, or think that every woman should look like that. The reality though is that as humans we don’t and the sooner that as a society we realize this, the sooner we will evolve. There is another video in the series that tackles how young girls are bombarded with advertisements and media telling them they need to be “younger, smaller, lighter, firmer, tighter, softer” which I recommend you watch as well. You can see all three videos in the series at the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.
Why am I bringing this all up on my photography blog? Well, it’s simple really: I aim to capture your beauty for all to see and I would like to urge you to think about how you want to feel about yourself and not what the media tells you to feel about yourself.
This brings me to my secondary reaction to the video above. What I do is take a woman who may not feel very sexy, and I help transform her into something she never knew she could become, much like what that video does for that girl before all the Photoshop changes are made. What’s added? Some make up, hair styling, and proper lighting. That’s all. Nothing more.
I very strongly believe that all women, whatever age or size, can feel sexy. It’s not about how thin you are, how pretty you are, how flawless you are… the things that make you think that you are not perfect, are what make you perfect. My philosophy when shooting a boudoir session is to see the beauty in you that you refuse to see in yourself, and showing it to you. Do you have a significant other who thinks you are beautiful? Let me show you what they see. Do you simply have a low self image? Let me change that. Let me show you the sexy, confident, beautiful version of yourself that you didn’t realize was there.
And I’m not limiting this article to women… men, you know you have self confidence issues as well. While most men wouldn’t want to partake in a boudoir session, an Old Hollywood style glamour shoot can do wonders for your self esteem. Throw on a suit, don a fedora, and look up at the camera!
To summarize and conclude though, I would like all of you, men and women, to do me a favor: the next time you feel a little less attractive or have a little less confidence, stop, take a breath, think of this video are realize that you are strong enough, you are beautiful enough, you are sexy enough, you are smart enough — to do whatever it is you desire to do.
Quite nicely said and well written. I like how in your posts you engage your reader (e.g. “Watched it? Ok, good.”), it makes the post more of a conversation. Good job Biggie G
Here is the post I’ve been so excited to share with you… my first full Hollywood Glamour shoot! Erin makes my job so easy. Again, I want to extend a public thank you to her for letting me borrow her so frequently and display her face all over the internet. Erin, thank you!
The first photo here in the set is the shot I’m using for my business cards. They are currently being processed by the shop and I should see samples tomorrow. (Very excited about that!) I’ve also divided the shoot into color, then black and white. I feel that the black and white shots have a different feel about them, so I didn’t want to mix them in directly. I guess in theory they are a bit more classic “Old Hollywood”, but I think all the shots in this set scream Hollywood Glamour, in color or black and white.
Yesterday Erin helped test out some new techniques in shooting Hollywood Glamour. Yes, I said Hollywood Glamour. Not your new fangled Glamor you see in Maxim designed to sell you products, but old style Hollywood Glamour, designed to sell you the Starlet! It’s that extra “u” that does it.
This is a new addition to our Boudoir and we’re really excited to start offering it! Glam yourself up, come in your best evening gown with as many sparkles as you can, doll yourself up with that Hollywood style makeup and piercing red lips, don a fur and then glow for the camera!
Erin is a beautiful woman. And she really felt it doing this shoot.
“I’m so pretty!” she exclaimed after seeing these shots. Yes Erin, you are, and I had a great time proving it to you. While good photography helps make shots like these, I really feel it was the model who perfected them. She played the role of the strong, yet coy, woman who was right for this setting. If I had to describe these shots with one word, it would be Strength.
Congratulations to Samantha on her wedding today! It is such a gorgeous day for a wedding. I had a lot of fun with this shoot. Samantha was a beautiful model and I think her husband is going to love theses photos.
These are awesome Michael. You certainly have a great eye for composition! I had some boudoir pictures done years and years (and pounds and pounds) ago by a very talented photog, but I can tell you they weren’t anywhere near this good.